T-Mobile begins repurposing MetroPCS spectrum to improve LTE speeds, also confirms new $35 plan

T-Mobile said last year that one of the benefits of its merger with MetroPCS was that it would repurpose the prepaid carrier's spectrum to beef up its own 4G LTE network, and now it appears that that process is finally underway. T-Mobile has told AllThingsD that right before Thanksgiving, it combined its own spectrum with MetroPCS's in North Dallas to create 20x20 service, which offers faster speeds to all of T-Mo's LTE-capable devices.
While the speedier service is currently limited to North Dallas, T-Mobile intends to roll it out to 90 percent of the top 25 markets in the U.S. Magenta couldn't say when those markets will go live, though, explaining that the timing depends on how quickly it's able to shift some of the traffic on its network. T-Mo did say that it plans to have 10x10 LTE coverage in 40 of the top 50 U.S. markets by the end of the year.
In other Magenta news, T-Mobile has confirmed to TmoNews that starting Dec. 8, it will begin offering a new $35 Unlimited Talk & Text plan for Pay In Advance customers. As the name of the plan implies, it includes unlimited minutes and text messages but does not include any data. That may not sound very enticing to us smartphone addicts, but the plan could be a good fit for folks that only use their phone as a phone and not for looking up the time that it takes for a cheetah to accelerate from 0 to 62 miles per hour (three seconds). T-Mobile says that the $35 plan will be available for a limited time, but it didn't reveal exactly how long the offering will be around.